


Lunam En Tenebris

by WhimsyAndMalice



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Brutal Murder, Character Death, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Revenge, Suicide, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:34:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26709862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhimsyAndMalice/pseuds/WhimsyAndMalice
Summary: They took her wife so now Luna has nothing to lose. She'll make every single one of them pay if it's the last thing she does.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Luna Lovegood
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28





	1. Est Confringetur

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is very dark and is tagged accordingly. Please pay attention to the tags for potential triggers as they are there for VERY good reasons. You have been warned. 
> 
> This would not have been possible without Lunamionny, Frumpologist, Zorak23 (The bears are her fault), and the lovely JacqP. You ladies are fucking epic and I love you all for being so damn patient with me.
> 
> The first chapter is very short but more are written and will be posted weekly :)

He was tired. The kind of tired that sank into his bones and made them feel as if they were made of lead. But he knew that he couldn’t stop moving, he couldn’t stop running, because the second he did the horror behind him would devour him. 

His whole world had become this, it was all he could remember save for a flash of white-blonde hair and a glimpse of the most terrifyingly empty eyes he had ever seen in his life. Just the ghost of them made his blood run cold. He kept moving, running as fast as he could but he knew that he couldn’t keep up this pace forever, he knew that sooner or later the unspeakable thing behind him would catch him and rend him limb from limb. 

xxx

Luna stared down at the gaunt features of Antonin Dolohov, the man who had dealt the final blow that had ended the life of the only woman she would ever love. The man who had finished taking the sunlight and warmth out of her life. She studied him with cold and dispassionate eyes, from the mask of unseeing horror he wore to the way that his broken body had contorted as his mind continued to splinter into a thousand pieces. 

She had expected to feel something, to feel relief, pleasure, anger even. But no, all she felt was a vast, roaring emptiness, a void full of white noise. All of her emotions had been walled up behind ice so thick that she couldn’t hope to break through it even if she had wanted to. The only reason that she had to live now was knowing that the rest of the men that had made her lover suffer so much were still out there. She would find each one of them and make them pay, she would take everything from them and then their lives. Only then would she be able to say she had done enough. 

Only then would she be able to say that she had properly avenged her wife.


	2. Depilatus Et Sanguis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna goes after yet another one of the men that stole her love from her. The aurors start to catch on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the love for Lunamionny, Zorak23, JacqP and Frumpologist. I love you ladies!

Thorfinn awoke with a pounding headache and throbbing case of morning wood. Without even opening his eyes, he tried to reach for his cock to give himself some relief but was suprised to realize he couldn't move. His eyes flew open, making both his shock and his confusion mount with a dizzying speed. Not only was he not in his bed, he wasn’t at home at all. He took in his surroundings as much as he was able; he could only see as far as he could move his eyes. 

He was, as far as he could tell, alone in what seemed to be an otherwise empty warehouse, and somehow tied down to what felt like a rough metal table whose edges were biting into the skin of his back and legs. Just as he finished taking what stock he could of his surroundings, he heard soft footsteps somewhere off to his left. He tried to open his mouth but to no avail and, try as he might, he couldn’t even get the barest of sounds to emerge from his throat. When he realised that, the panic started setting in – he needed to know where he was and what was going on.

A voice he couldn’t quite hear whispered something he couldn’t quite make out and then all of a sudden, he started to lift off of the table, moving until he was in a standing position. Once fully upright his eyes darted around frantically, hoping to catch a glimpse of his captor. His eyes bulged in surprise and terror when Luna Lovegood-Granger stepped into the meager light in front of him. His blood ran cold and he felt the warmth of his own piss trickle down his leg from the fear that the sight of her brought him. 

xxx

Luna watched the vile creature in front of her with disinterest, his reaction mattered little now, because what was coming would be worse than anything he could possibly be thinking. Without moving any closer to him, Luna spoke, her words sealing Thorfinn’s fate.

“I see by your reaction that you know who I am. All the better, as all the talking and the explaining would get rather tiresome. Since you are aware of these things, you also know why I’m here and that you will not be leaving this place alive. You will die here, Thorfinn Rowle, but before you are granted the mercy of death, you will suffer what she did and more, so much more. Shall we begin?”

Luna pulled out a dagger and cast an ever-sharp charm on it before sticking her wand into her hair. The light glinted off of her blade as she stalked towards him, a grim and deadly smile gracing her too pale face. 

“Before I begin, you should know that you will be able to feel everything that I do but you will not be able to scream, you will not be able to move and you will find no relief or succour here. You will only be able to suffer and die.”

Those were the last words that Luna spoke for a very long time. 

She started on his toes, slowly slicing through each one until each foot was a smooth nub dripping with blood. Then she took his feet just above the ankles, taking her time so she could feel the crack of bone and the snap of every tendon and muscle. Once she was satisfied with her work there, she moved on to his fingers and hands and repeated the same process. At this point her arms were soaked with his blood to up past her elbows, but she didn’t care. There was so much more blood to come. 

From there she moved on to his groin, taking what was there down past the root until all that remained was a gaping, ruined hole. She was close to her goal now, but there was still more work to be done before she could stop, more to be done before this part of her vengeance was satisfied. His ears, nose and scalp soon followed and joined the pile of ruined flesh on the ground beside her. 

Satisfied that he was ready for the next step, Luna moved around his body, making deep, methodical cuts so she could make sure that the last part of this could be done easily. Once she was finished doing that, she whispered a quiet spell which meant she was able to dig her hands into the cuts and peel every inch of skin from his body.

By that point he was only alive because Luna had kept a careful stasis charm around his body so that he wouldn’t bleed to death until she was done with him. Once she had pulled the last bit of skin from him, she stood back and took in the sight of Rowle’s flayed body. There was no pleasure in her gaze, only a satisfaction that she had been able to complete yet another part of her revenge. She dispelled the stasis charm with a wave of her wand and turned to leave, pausing only to call over her shoulder to the rapidly exsanguinating man behind her. 

“Don’t worry Rowle, you won’t be alone for long, the rest of your friends will join you in hell soon enough.”

And with that she left, leaving Thorfinn Rowle to die alone in the dark. 

xxx

A few days later, Auror Harry Potter and his partner arrived at the warehouse that they had received several reports about. According to witnesses, there was a strong stench of death emanating from it that hadn’t dissipated so the Ministry sent them out to investigate just in case it was something more than a dead animal. 

“Come on Bigsby, I know the smell is rank even from out here but like Ludlow said, it’s likely to be just a dead animal that got trapped inside somehow. I want to get in and get this over with, I’ve got an important date with Pansy tonight.”

Harry’s partner, Mortimer Bigsby rolled his eyes at Harry’s words. 

“You finally going to pop the question then? It’s a wonder you haven’t been scooped up by another witch, it’s taken you so long with this one. We could have sworn for the longest that you were going to end up with the Weasley girl.”

Harry grimaced, both at Bigsby’s words and at the increasingly terrible smell coming from the open door of the warehouse. Harry spoke again as the two men made their way inside and began looking around.

“Listen Bigs, I’ve told you already, Ginny and I just weren’t right for each other and besides, she’s much happier with Cho now anyway. And I don’t want to hear it about Pansy, she-”

Harry’s words suddenly cut off, prompting Bigsby to make his way over to see what had made his partner fall silent so abruptly. As he approached, his mind rebelled as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. The horror of comprehension slowly dawned across his face as his mind started to make sense of what he was seeing – the ruined pile of rotting flesh started to take the form of a human body. He promptly turned around and vomited up the remainder of the chip butty that he had eaten for lunch. He was still hunched over when he heard Potter cast his patronus.

In a strained voice, Harry sent a message to Head Auror Dawlish warning him of a code black. This would ensure that more aurors would be sent, as well as someone from the Department of Mysteries. 

“C’mon Bigs, let’s get out of here before we lose any more of our lunch.”

The two aurors made their way outside, as far away as they dared, unable to stand the stench, or be close to the scene inside any longer. Bigsby looked over at Potter where he sat with his head in his hands.

“Wh-who could do something like that to another person?”

Harry grimaced and shook his head,

“I have not the slightest idea Bigs, but I have a terrible feeling that this is only the beginning.”


	3. Ossa Fracta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yet another of the bastards is set to fall prey to the revenge fueled malice of Luna's shattered heart, who is it this time and how will they die?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alllllll of the love to my cadre of amazing ladies, Lunamionny, Frumpologist, Zorak23 and JacqP. I don't know what I would do without you.

Luna knew that Travers was going to prove a bit more difficult to get to than the first two had been; he had somehow managed to lie and scheme his way out of any real charges at Hermione’s murder trial, and then into a marriage in which he’d had a child with the poor witch. 

The thought of that monster being even remotely happy, and having the life that should have been hers and Hermione’s, made rage bubble up inside Luna and threaten to drown her in its intensity. It didn’t matter though, Luna had been watching him for weeks and she had accounted for everything. It would all fall into place and one more piece of shit would finally be buried, no matter who or what got in her way. 

Nearly a week later, the time had come for Luna to exact the next part of her revenge. Everything was perfect and going according to her carefully laid plan, she just had to wait for the bastard to be alone. She waited, disillusioned and impatient as Travers' wife collected their son and summoned the Knight Bus for a trip to her mother’s in Surrey. The woman gave Travers a peck on the cheek and made her way onto the bus which disappeared as soon as the garish purple doors shut behind her. 

When Travers turned and moved to go inside his house, Luna dashed up behind him and caught the door just before it closed. She waited until she heard him go up the stairs and carefully made her way inside, ensuring to close and lock the door silently behind her, before making her way upstairs to where she could hear Travers getting into the shower. Luna went into his bedroom and sat in the chair on the far side of it to wait for him to finish and emerge from the bathroom.

xxx 

Travers sighed as the hot water poured over his body. He desperately needed this weekend off from his bitch of a wife and the little bastard that he was positive wasn’t his. It had been weeks since he had been able to see Lorinda so, after a quick shower and a shave, that’s exactly what he would be doing. It was hardly his fault he was seeking out the company of another woman; if his wife ever paid him any attention, he wouldn’t have had cause to, so it was all her fault really. Who could blame him – a man had needs after all, didn’t he? 

He stepped out of the shower and went over to the sink, but after a quick look, decided that he didn’t need to shave after all. Lorinda wasn’t the sort to mind, not like his wife who insisted he always be completely clean shaven. He walked out of the bathroom and was about to open his wardrobe when a flash of white from the other side of the room caught his eye. He turned and saw something that he had hoped to never see: the Granger bitch’s wife. 

He spun and went for his wand, but before he could he felt himself freeze and topple to the floor. The soft voice of the woman behind him made his heart pound and the taste of fear fill his mouth like bitter ash. 

“Tsk, tsk tsk. Looking for this, Travers?”

His wand clattered to the ground just inches from his head but it might as well have been across the street for all the good it did him. 

“You see, I took precautions before you finished your shower. I couldn’t let you ruin things for me now, could I? And before you get any ideas, I have warded this room from sound and from any egress save my own, so I’m afraid you’re stuck here for the rest of your life.”

With a few sharp flicks of her wand, Luna straightened out his body, laying him flat against the floor. 

“You might be wondering what I’m going to do to you, so I’m happy to relieve you of your ignorance and let you know that it’s simply what you did to her but a thousand times worse. Instead of just breaking one or two of your bones, I will be crushing every single one of them, starting with your feet and working my way in and up.”

At the look of terror in Travers eyes, Luna simply shrugged, tilting her head to the side with an uncaring look in her eyes before continuing. 

“I did tell you all that I would get my revenge, did I not? You didn’t expect I would forget any of you now, did you? That just wouldn’t do. Now, on to the matter at hand: I’m feeling a bit generous so I’m going to release the curse from your neck upwards so you can scream all you would like, not that it will do you any good.”

At that, Luna brought her wand down sharply on his right foot and watched as it crumpled before her eyes, making Travers scream. The noise filled the room and made Luna grin in satisfaction. She moved up his right leg and side, crushing the bones as she went but leaving his spine intact, the sound of splintering bone searing itself into her brain as it continued unabated. She finally arrived at his neck, having left his skull and spine for last. 

Luna cocked her head, looked down at him and asked him one final question. 

“Any last words Travers?”

She had to lean down to hear the garbled words that were forced out of his ruined chest.

“Kill me. Please.”

Luna’s eyes grew hard, the grey going flinty and dark. 

“If you insist.”

With a wave of her wand, Luna crushed his spine and skull, leaving nothing but the ruined mess of him behind. 

With a few whispered words, she removed the wards from the room and left. Her work there was done. 

DAILY PROPHET SPECIAL EDITION:

Report by Ignatius Halver

Earlier today the Ministry released a statement about the third mind-numbingly violent and macabre death that has occurred in as many months. The Minister stated that they are now treating this as a serial killer, as all of the crime scenes carried the same magical signature. He has also instituted a mandated curfew and advised that all citizens should take extreme care not to be out alone at any hour until this vicious monster is caught. 

More on this story on page 3. 

Luna snapped her copy of the Prophet shut and threw it on the table. They really didn’t know a bloody thing. And to think, she wasn’t even half done.


	4. Intestina Tentorium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna has managed to find yet another one of the bastards, but would she be able to hold back long enough to make him suffer the way he deserved?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap. Only two more chapters left and I still have the best alphabet peeps and cheerleaders ever. Susie, Frump, Zorak and Jacq, you are all fucking goddesses and I love your damn faces. 
> 
> Enjoy everyone but please keep in mind that the tags are there for a reason and each one matters a great deal.

Gregory Goyle knew that it was risky for him to be out and about right now. He knew that the boys had been dropping like flies lately but he couldn’t help himself. He desperately needed to go to the club, to have what he craved, what he could find only there. 

The Black Butterfly was a closely guarded secret and a haven for those that had any sort of dark desire that they couldn’t sate elsewhere. It catered to some of the most vile things that Goyle had ever seen or heard of, things that even he wouldn’t partake in. He was better than that. He went there for one thing and one thing only, and he never indulged elsewhere, so he was better than some of those animals that he knew frequented the location. 

It was late as he walked in and took in the familiar sights. He usually made a habit of arriving at the club quite a bit earlier, but due to the security measures he was employing, he’d been delayed in ways that he normally wouldn’t have been. But that didn’t matter, he was here now and he had already spotted who he was going to have for the night. The girl was sitting alone at one of the high top tables with a bright fizzy drink in front of her, her feet swinging, her white blond curls bouncing, and with the telltale black band tired around her wrist that signified she was available for the night. 

With a predatory smile and a sick gleam in his eyes, Goyle made his way over to the table, intent on claiming her for his pleasure. 

He sat in the chair across from the girl, the sight of her pale skin and pretty bow shaped lips heating his blood and making his trousers already grow tight. 

“What’s your name, girlie?”

The girl looked up at him, her blue-gray eyes large and full of an innocence that he hadn’t seen in a long time. She spoke in a small, breathy voice that excited him even further.

“Elenore, sir.”

Goyle drew in a sharp breath, Merlin, she was perfect.

“That’s a very pretty name for a very pretty girl. How old are you, Eleanore?”

She smiled and blushed prettily.

“Thank you sir. I can be as old as you’d like sir, or as young as you want (wish), if that’s what you fancy.” 

Goyle drew in a deep breath, stood, and reached out his hand for Eleanore to take. Gods, it felt so small and smooth in his large hand, he could only imagine how the rest of her would feel and how prettily the bruises would bloom on her pale skin. With a not so gentle tug on her hand, he pulled her behind him as he headed towards the stairs that led to the special soundproofed rooms on the second floor of the club. 

His desire darkened with each step so by the time they made it into the room, he simply shoved the girl inside and set the timer that would lock them both inside for the time allotted to each room. He turned, thinking he’d find the girl cowering on the floor but was surprised to find that she was standing in the middle of the room with her wand raised and a cold, deadly look in her eyes. With a rush of anger, he strode towards her, his voice rising with every step.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, girl? I paid to have a particular experience here and foolish wand waving is absolutely not a part of that. I didn’t think your ilk was allowed wands here anyway, so who’d you nick that off of, you thieving little slut?”

The girl laughed, the sound chilling and mad.

“I see you’re still as stupid as you were three years ago, Goyle.Too stupid to recognize a glamour when you see one.” Luna waved her wand over herself and her features melted and matured, revealing herself as who she really was. 

Rage and surprise warred on his face, the former finally winning and turning his face a violent shade of red. 

“You cunt! How dare you show your face here! We were all acquitted of what happened to that mudblood bitch wife of yours and you were ordered to stay away from all of us. I ought to just–”

Goyle’s words were cut off as Luna shot a curse towards him, but he was able to put up a shield just in time and fire back with a curse of his own. Fortunately, Luna was a little too slow and Goyle’s crucio hit home with deadly accuracy. He held the curse for several minutes until he was sure that she wouldn’t be able to fight back, then released it, eager to take what he wanted from the bitch and to finally put an end to all of this. It wasn’t until his hand closed around one of her wrists that he realised his mistake. The last thing he heard was her cold voice.

“Lacerabis.”

The force of the spell tore through Goyle’s chest, taking with it his heart, lungs and the upper part of his spine. 

xxx

Luna sat up, her chest heaving with the effort of withstanding the crucio and of casting such a strong curse so quickly after. She looked over at Goyle’s body and the anger she had felt at his words flooded through her once again. This wasn’t enough, he didn’t deserve to simply lie there after everything he had done. 

Luna quickly removed all of his clothes, made a deep slice across his belly with her wand and removed his intestines which fell from the gaping wound with a sick squelch. She wrapped them around his neck and tied them there. Once she was satisfied that they weren’t going to slip off, she levitated him to the ceiling and secured another part of his innards to one of the beams. The warning timer sounded, making her realise that she had spent far too much time in the club, but as she was going to leave, she paused, needing to leave one last thing behind. She dipped her hand into the pool of Goyles blood and wrote on the wall, unable to resist taunting the aurors before she left. 

Now she was ready to go. The timer went off, the door unlocked and she made her way down the back stairs and out the exit that led into a discreet alley, unaware that one of the club's house elves had seen her leave. 

Hours later, the aurors had been summoned to the club after one of the patrons had found Goyle’s body and ran screaming down the front stairs. Once again, it was Harry and Mortimer that were first on the scene, but the sheer violence of the recent string of murders had begun to wear on them. They didn’t know what they were going to do if they weren’t able to catch the murderer soon. 

Harry stood at the entrance of the room and took in the sight of Gregory Goyle Senior naked and strung up with his own guts. It was horrifying and sickening and he couldn’t comprehend what had motivated this level of gore – there just had to be a reason behind it all. Frowning, he glanced beyond where the body was hanging and noticed bloody words painted on the wall. 

“Lunam En Tenebris”

Lunam En Tenebris

Moon in darkness. Where had he heard something like that before? He knew he had, but he just couldn’t remember where. He turned to see Bigsby staring at the words with a sad look on his face.

“Alright, Bigs?”

Bigsby turned and looked at him with a crooked frown.

“It’s sad, innit? On top of this bloody mess, there’s this awful reminder of what happened with the Granger-Lovegood tragedy a few years back.”

Harry’s eyes widened. That was it! There was something inscribed on Hermione’s headstone that was all too similar to this for his liking. He stalked out of the room, his thoughts racing. There was no way that Luna could have anything to do with this mess, no way that his old friend would be capable of something this terrible. But as he thought that, something in his heart told him that he had to go and find out, regardless of the answers that waited for him. Harry turned, stuck his head back into the room and called out to his partner. 

“I’ve got a lead I'm going to go and follow up, Bigs. If you finish here, I’ll do the paperwork when I get back to the office. Just leave it on my desk if that's ok.”

Bigsby merely waved him off. “Go on then, see you at the office Potter.”

Harry strode outside to where he would be able to apparate and with a crack, he disappeared, hoping that he wasn’t going to find what he’d been beginning to suspect when he landed. 

Seconds later, Harry appeared in front of a quaint little cottage surrounded by wildflowers, with gentle wisps of smoke coming out of the chimney. He took a deep breath, went up to the door and knocked. He waited, not realising that he had been holding his breath until Luna opened the door. He looked at her and saw that, aside from a wrinkle or two and her hair being perhaps a shade lighter, she looked exactly the same as she had when they had been at Hogwarts together. The only thing that surprised him was the sheer amount of venom and ice in her gaze.

“What do you want, Potter?” She spat the words at him as if they had tasted foul. 

Shocked at her tone, Harry took half a step backwards before remembering why he was there.

“Luna, I’m sorr–”

She held up a hand, stopping his words.

“First of all, Potter, I don’t want any sort of apology from you and secondly, if you have to address me at all, you can do so with her name.”

Harry swallowed hard and took a deep breath. He’d known that things weren’t going to go well, but he hadn’t expected this level of anger from her after all this time. 

“Mrs. Lovegood-Granger, I did not intend to bother you at this hour but I am here on Ministry business.” 

She waved her hand for him to continue.

“I’ll assume that you’ve seen the reports about the recent spate of killings?” Luna simply nodded, “Well there was another one tonight, and I saw something that made me come here. I need to know, did you have anything to do with any of it?”

Harry waited with his heart in his throat and watched as the anger in her face melted into a mask of something that scared him to his core. 

“And what would you do if I told you that I did in fact have something to do with them, Potter? Would you take me into custody with no evidence and then allow me to get off scot free on a bloody fucking technicality?”

Harry straightened, looked her in the eye and spoke with the pain clear in his voice. “That day wasn’t my fault, Luna. I tried to tell you over and over again that I had nothing to do with it!”

Luna snorted and rolled her eyes. “I don’t give a flying fuck what you tried to do. It’s what you didn’t do that got those bastards off the hook, despite everything they did to my wife, you arsehole! Your inaction led to them being free all this time and I will never forgive you for it. I hate you for that, Harry James Potter! I hate you and all the rest, more than you can possibly imagine, so you should thank your lucky fucking stars that you aren’t on my list!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Luna realised that she had well and truly fucked herself. Nothing to be done about it now, she supposed. Potter could try to take her in but he would fail because nothing was going to stop her from carrying out her plan to the very end. 

Harry met her eyes with a stricken look on his face and pulled out his wand.

“I’m sorry Luna, but I need to take you in. Will you come quietly or not?”

Luna stared at him for a moment and cocked her head. “I think I’ll go with ‘or not’.”

As the last word left her lips she brought up her wand faster than Harry had ever thought possible and shot a spell at the stone path between them. The ground exploded out towards Harry and knocked him back with so much force, he flew through the wooden fence that surrounded Luna’s home. Before he could recover enough to stand, he heard the tell tale crack of disapparition. Luna was gone. 

He took his watch off, smashed the face against a nearby rock and waited for it to glow blue. Once he saw that the light had flashed, he rolled over and let unconsciousness take him.


	5. Venenum et Paenitentia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What will Luna do when confronted by the last thing she expected in the pursuit of her own brand of justice?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHHH! Only one more chapter and the epilogue left on this story! Thank you to those of you who have been reading as I post and thank you to my forever fantastic alphabet/inspiration/idea bouncing/ all-around amazing group of ladies. Frumpologist, Lunamionny, Zorak23, and JacqP, I love you all so much!
> 
> As always, please mind the tags, they are there for a damn good reason. You have been warned. Repeatedly.

Luna spent the next several weeks randomly apparating to different locations and using muggle transportation in between to throw off anyone that was following her. She had seen at least three aurors following her which meant there were at least double that on her tail, so she wasn’t taking any chances. It wasn’t until she had settled in an abandoned hut on the Isle of Skye that she finally felt like there was room for her to breathe and that there wasn’t someone lying in wait for her around the corner. Now that she had had time to rest and gather her thoughts, she knew what she had to do. 

xxx

“Adela, can you bring me the reports from the Australian bid?” 

Instead of the immediate ‘Yes sir’ that he had come to expect from his energetic assistant, Corban was met with silence. His blood turned to ice whilst fear flashed hot and harsh along his spine. She was here. 

Corban stood on trembling legs and called out in an unsteady voice: 

“I know you’re out there. Won’t you come in so we can get this over with?”

Soft footsteps met his ears only seconds before the sight he had feared seeing since that fateful night appeared in the doorway of his office. She was here for the revenge that she more than deserved. The only thing that surprised him was that it had taken her this long to get to him. He forced himself to walk out from behind his desk to meet her as she walked in. 

He inclined his head in greeting to the woman that stood just a few feet from him. 

“Mrs. Lovegood-Granger.”

Luna narrowed her eyes slightly, looking at him with suspicion. 

“You aren’t going to try to fight or run or beg?”

Yaxley swallowed hard and met her gaze,

“No, I am not going to do any of those things. I know why you’re here and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I deserve every bit of what you’re going to do to me, as did the rest of them.”

Luna’s eyes widened in surprise. This was the last thing that she had been expecting, the last thing that she thought she was ever going to get from these bastards. But sadly, it was too little, too late. Steeling herself for what was to come, Luna spoke again, her voice cold and unyielding.

“I sobbed and begged every deity I knew and then some to hear those words from any of you, to hear the words that would bring my wife justice for what you all did to her. Week after week, month after month I waited. But no, none of you had the courage or the remorse to speak up and turn the rest of you in. Had any of you done that, had any of you chosen to pay for your crimes back then, had any of you not chosen to make me seem like a simple widow insane with grief, you would all be in Azkaban and safe from me. But no, you all made the choices that set me on this broken path that only has one destination for all of us.”

Yaxley took the words that Luna spewed at him, the coldness of them searing what little was left of his soul. It was too late for him or anyone else involved, but he would do this one thing willingly and he would give Luna what she had come here for. 

“There is nothing I can say that will help, nothing I can do that will change any of this and I know that. What we did to your wife was something that sealed our fates the moment the decision was made, so I remand myself to your justice and will offer no resistance. I will not beg for what I forfeited so long ago, so do what you will.”

Luna took a deep breath and gave Yaxley a long, hard look. 

“I came here with one intention: to kill you and, in the process, make you suffer more than she did But your words have been enough to buy you one small sliver of mercy. Instead of what I had intended to do, I’ll give you a choice.” 

She pulled out a small vial filled with a seemingly innocuous grey liquid.

“You can either take this, or I can cast a protracted Bubble Head charm filled with water and you can drown. Decide quickly, or I’m liable to withdraw my offer.”

Yaxley stared at the vial, he had no way of knowing what it was or what it would do but maybe, just maybe, it would give him the chance to do one last thing before he left this earth. 

“I’ll take the poison. Either way, it’s more than I deserve.”

Luna nodded and gave him the vial. 

Yaxley uncorked the top and looked at Luna. “I’m sorry.” 

Without another word he tossed back the contents of the container and sank to the floor, the effects already beginning to show. 

Luna watched dispassionately as he started to sweat and his muscles began to convulse. It was done. Even if someone turned up right then, the poison had no known cure, so no one would be able to save him. 

Luna walked out the office without another word, or even glance, in his direction, leaving yet another one of the monsters that had killed her wife to die alone, as Hermione had. 

Yaxley heard the pop of disapparition through the haze of agony that had consumed him. He knew he didn’t have much time left so he had to move quickly. He forced himself to a sitting position amid the cramps that made getting crucioed seem like a tickle, and grabbed his wand and the now empty glass vial. Shaking, he pressed his wand to his temple and pulled out a long, shining white strand and settled it into the vial. His final thought before the pain overtook him was that he had finally done something right.

Less than an hour later, Harry and Bigsby arrived on the scene. As soon as Harry caught sight of Yaxley’s lifeless body, he let out a string of obscenities that made even the usually crass Bigsby blush. Harry ran his hands through his already messy hair and groaned in frustration. He opened his mouth to say something to Bigsby but instead turned and punched the wall next to the door, leaving a hole behind. 

“Bloody fucking hell, Bigs! How did Luna get here without us knowing? We’ve been monitoring for her non-stop since she disappeared!”

Bigsby shook his head. “I dunno Potter, but stop for a moment and look around. Don’t you think that this seems a little subdued, considering how she offed the others?”

Harry paused and took in the details around him. Nothing was disturbed or out of place and, if not for the fact that he wasn’t breathing, one could almost swear that Yaxley had just decided to have a seat on the floor for no reason. He furrowed his brow. This was admittedly very strange in comparison to the other murders. What was she playing at this time? As Harry ran over possible reasons for this deviation in his head, Bigsby crouched next to the body and levitated a small vial up into the air to Harry’s line of sight, with a look of concern etched into his round face. 

“I’ll stay behind and secure everything until the others get here, Potter. You need to get this back to the Ministry. There’s no telling what’s in here, could be from him or from her but it could also be the break in the case that we need in order to catch her.”

Harry pulled a small drawstring bag out of his robes and opened it just enough so that Bigsby could lower the vial into it. 

“Alright, Bigs. I’ll send you a patronus if I find out anything worth knowing.”

With a nod to his partner, Harry stepped outside the office and quickly disapparated. 

xxx

Hours later, Harry sat in Kingsley’s office with a defeated look on his face. 

“Why didn’t we take her word for it, Kings? We knew there was something else going on with the trial and there was the suspicious lack of hard evidence against those bastards, but we still just let it happen, we let them go free. If we’d tried harder then we may have been able to have justice for Her–” he swallowed hard, “for Hermione.”

Kingsley, turned from where he had been staring out of the charmed window behind his desk and faced Harry with a haunted look on his face.

“Harry, I did what I thought was best, but I clearly failed the people I help govern, as well as one of the brightest and best of us. But what is done now is done. I can’t change the past, but what I can do is release this evidence and the truth it holds and send the remaining two of them to Azkaban for the rest of their lives. But we need to act quickly. Luna is likely to already be on their trail. I want you to take Bigsby and your pick of four other aurors and go to the Lestrange brothers. Imperio them if you have to, but get them to Azkaban before she gets to them.”

Harry stood up quickly and gave Kingsley a sharp nod, before exiting in a flurry of robes and poorly-restrained tears. On his way to get Bigs and the other aurors, he would send a copy of the memories to his contact at the Daily Prophet, with a note of explanation. Halver would know what to do with it all. 

DAILY PROPHET SPECIAL EDITION:

Report by Ignatius Halver

It is with a heavy heart that I bring the following to the attention of the Wizarding world at large.

Earlier tonight, I received a vial of memories from a Ministry contact that shed light on what has long been a painful memory for many of us. This memory was taken from Corban Yaxley, a former and, until now, thought to be reformed Death Eater. When I reviewed the memories, I had to stop several times due to the graphic nature of their contents, but I forced myself to watch every last second because I owed it to her. I owed it to the war heroine Hermione Granger-Lovegood to not turn away from witnessing her violent and senseless murder. Because it was in these memories that I was able to see what really happened to her the night she died and who was truly responsible for her death.

At the request of the Minister himself, I am printing the names of all seven men that took part in this atrocity so that the truth can be seen and finally known by all: 

Antonin Dolohov  
-  
Thorfinn Rowle  
-  
Gregory Goyle Sr  
-  
Alpern Travers  
-  
Corban Yaxley  
-  
Rodolphus Lestrange  
-  
Rabastan Lestrange

The Minister will be releasing a statement at the Ministry on Friday to disclose further details and to answer questions on the matter.

xxx

In a dark and dusty room in a hut on the Isle of Skye, Luna sank to her knees with the front page of the Daily Prophet clutched to her chest and loud, wracking sobs emerging from her throat. This was what she had always wanted, what she had begged everyone for, from Harry to Kingsley himself. But no one had listened to her, no one had cared enough to. Moments later, the anger and resentment rushed back and reminded her that she still had things to take care of. The fact that the truth was out there meant nothing. 

She still had to make all of them pay, no matter what happened or what it cost her.


	6. Fratres, Scopulas, Et Arctos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lestrange brothers are the last ones on Luna's list and no matter what Luna will see them dead if it's the last thing she does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are at the end of the tragedy of "Lunam En Tenebris". I hope that you all enjoy the ending to this as much as I loved writing it.
> 
> Please, please, please, go back and pay close attention to the tags. They apply heavily to some potentially triggering material in this last chapter. For the last time, you have been warned. 
> 
> As always, Frumpologist, Lunamionny, Zorak23 and JacqP are the bestest ever and I love them bunches!

The elder Lestrange brother ran into the small house that he and his brother had been hiding in since that blasted piece about the Granger bitch had come out.

“Bast! We need to go, now!”

Rabastan Lestrange walked out of the kitchen with the remnants of a ham sandwich in his hand. He swallowed the bite that he had just taken and looked at his brother in confusion.

“What are you on about, Rod? I thought you said that we’d be safe here for a few weeks at least?”

Rodolphus growled. “If you had bothered using that fat head of yours for something other than thinking of when your next meal is, you’d realise that the outer wards were broken a few minutes ago!”

Rabastan’s face went ashen at the news. The bite of ham and bread he had just taken slid down to his stomach, heavy and cold, whilst the rest of the sandwich fell from his hand to lie forgotten on the dusty floorboards. “She’s here, isn’t she?”

Rodolphus nodded grimly. “At the rate that she broke through the outer wards, she’ll have broken the rest in just a few minutes’ time. We have to go now, and hope to Merlin that our escape plan works or neither of us will live to see tomorrow.”

Without another word, the brothers made their way to the back of the house, not pausing when they heard the front door begin to splinter. Opening the back door, Rodolphus and Rabastan grabbed their brooms that they had stored there and straddled them. A loud boom sounded from inside the house and they knew that they were out of time. They pushed off from the ground and flew their brooms as fast as they could, but they were still close enough for bright streaks of magic to speed past them, nearly knocking them to the ground which was already far below them. 

Rodolphus didn’t dare to look back until he heard his brother cry out in pain. Glancing back, he saw that the Lovegood bitch had gotten on a broom of her own and was in closer pursuit than he had thought possible. His gaze landed on his brother and he was shocked to see that Rabastan’s entire left side was covered in blood. It was streaming off into the air behind him and splattering over Lovegood’s face and hair, creating a gruesome portrait of malice and fury. 

He went to slow down, but the pained and barely audible shout from his brother to continue spurred him on and he pushed the broom to its limit. Just when he thought that he had made some headway and might actually manage to get away from the cunt, a searing pain enveloped his body and he fell from the sky. 

The last thing he saw were the dark green boughs of the trees speeding towards him at a terrifying pace. 

xxx  
Luna watched with a darkly triumphant look on her face. She had felled the final two bastards that had taken her love from her. She only hoped that they had survived the fall because she wanted to take her time with them; she needed to make them suffer. She began to make her descent into the woods where the brothers had fallen, but before she could go beneath the treeline, she heard a shout from behind her. Turning, she saw Harry fucking Potter and a group of aurors floating in the air behind him. 

With a haughty and cold expression on her face, Luna amplified her voice to cross the distance between them. “You can’t stop me, Potter. I’ve already shot them down. Their broken bodies are lying down below, and even if they did survive the fall, it’s too late to save them.”

The aurors moved to surround her, but Harry raised a hand and they stayed back as he slowly approached. He stopped when he was close enough to see her clearly.

“Luna, please, you can still turn yourself in. Just throw your wand down and come with me. Please.”

The last word was so full of emotion and pleading that there was a tiny part of her that wanted to do as he asked. But no, she couldn’t. There was still one more thing she had to do, one last thing that would make everything right again. 

Luna lifted her chin, a determined glint in her eyes, 

“You should know by now Potter, I’m terrible at doing what I’m told.”

With that, Luna turned and sped off, leaving Harry behind with a heavy heart.

xxx

Harry knew where she was going, but he hoped that the night wouldn’t end as he felt in his heart it might. He turned to the aurors behind him and spoke quickly. 

“I want two of you to stay in the air and watch for either of the Lestrange brothers in case they’re alive and still capable of flight. The other two, I want down on the ground to find them or their bodies. If either of them are still alive, then I want them kept that way. I’m going after Lovegood. If you haven’t heard from me in an hour then send Bigs to the abandoned muggle theater with back up. He’ll know where it is.”

And with that. Harry sped off on his broom after Luna. 

Shortly after taking offHarry lost sight of her, but he wasn’t worried. He knew where she was going, he just hoped that he could get there before she did something he couldn’t save her from. With that thought in mind, he pushed his broom as fast as it would go and gritted his teeth against the cold air. 

xxx  
Luna touched down in front of the old theater, blasted a hole in the chained doors and ran inside, not slowing or stopping until she came to the doors of the room where it had happened. She took a deep breath and pushed inside. She had to hurry because she knew Harry was only minutes behind her and she couldn’t allow him to stop her. 

She stepped inside the main part of the theater and made her way to the stage where dark stains still covered the wood in horrifyingly large pools, and her breath caught in her throat. Memories of that night flooded her mind like a torrent of razor sharp glass, and sent her to her knees with tears streaming down her face. She was so caught up in the painful onslaught that she didn’t notice that Harry had entered the room behind her until he spoke, his words soft and full of emotion.

“Luna, I’m so sorry. You should never have had to come here and see her that night. I’m sorry that I didn’t do more and that you’ve been pushed to these depths.”

He watched as Luna stiffened and straightened from where she had been all but crouching on the floor. Harry looked on as she slowly got to her feet and turned to face him, her movements jerky as if they pained her. When she finally spoke, it was in a voice that carried such a depth of pain and longing that it threatened to overwhelm him.

“She was the sun to my moon Harry. The love of my life. The only reason why I didn’t lose myself to my own agony three years ago is because I had to avenge her. I had to make sure that those bastards paid for what they did to her before I could be finished, before I could see her again.”

Harry closed his eyes as a single tear rolled down his cheek. “You can’t mean that Luna. You can’t do that, please!” The pleading in his voice tore through the quiet air but fell flat in the face of the waves of agony rolling off of the woman he loved like a sister. “Please, Luna. We lost her. Don’t make us lose you too.”

He looked on as Luna cocked her head in that all-too familiar manner and an indefinable look filled her eyes. “I’m sorry Harry, this is just the way it has to be. This is the only way that I’ll be able to see Hermione again.”

And before Harry could react, Luna raised her wand and, with a whispered “Diffindo”, drew it across her neck. The wound instantly poured with blood in a bright crimson sheet down the front of her body. Harry made it to her just as her knees buckled and caught her before she could hit the ground. Broken hearted sobs wrenched from his chest and filled the silence around him as tears fell, hot and thick from his emerald eyes. 

xxx

Some time later, Bigsby and a team of aurors rushed into the room with wands raised. But instead of the wizarding duel or violent murderess that they had expected to find, all they saw was their fellow auror knelt on the ground with the body of Luna Lovegood-Granger clutched to his chest. Bigsby turned and waved them all out, and then knelt on the ground next to Harry and spoke softly to his partner. 

“Harry? Mate? It’s over, you have to let her go so the scene can be processed.”

Harry looked up at him with a look of such grief that Bigsby felt a stab of it himself. 

“I can’t leave her Bigs, I left her alone for so long, I can’t leave her now.”

Bigsby laid a hand on Harry’s shoulder,  
team coming in is good and they’ll take care of her.”

Tears started flowing once again down Harry’s face as he looked up at Bigsby. 

“Do you promise?”

Bigsby gave Harry’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I promise, mate. Now let’s go, gotta get you to St. Mungo’s, alright?”

Harry laid Luna out on the ground as gently as he could and pressed a kiss to her forehead, before whispering goodbye and letting Bigs lead him out of the room. He only paused to look back once. The last thought on his mind was that at least his best friend was finally reunited with the woman she had loved so much.


	7. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we discover the fate of the Lestrange brothers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And because I have exactly zero chill, I had to give you everything tonight instead of spacing it all out as I had originally planned. Please enjoy this delightful epilogue courtesy of the mind of the lovely and twisted Zorak23 and the stellar beta skills of Lunamionny, it would NOT have happened without them. 
> 
> And of course, thank you to Frumpologist and JacqP for sticking around, you rock ladies!

The aurors nervously waited at the door of the Minister of Magic’s office, neither one eager to explain to him why they hadn’t been able to recover the remains of the Lestrange brothers like they had been ordered to. The taller of the two shifted on his feet and glanced over at his partner. 

“Oy, Simmons, do you think he’s going to be upset?”

Simmons looked at his partner with wide eyes. “I dunno, Fitz but there wasn’t really anything we could have done, was there? I mean, I wasn’t going to risk grabbing what was left. Were you?”

Fitz shook his head, “Not a chance, mate. I would have had a hell of a time explaining that to the missus. I’m more scared of her, to be honest.”

Simmons chuckled, “I can’t say I blame you, having met her. Your wife is one scary witch when she’s cheesed off.”

Just as Fitz opened his mouth to respond, the deep voice of the Minister sounded from behind the door, silencing them both. With a quick look at each other and a deep breath, they opened the door and entered the Minister’s office. 

Kingsley Shacklebolt looked up from a pile of paperwork that he was going through and raised a thick eyebrow at the aurors in front of him. 

“Bigsby informed me that there was a problem with the remains of the Lestrange brothers. So out with it, why couldn’t you recover them properly?”

“Well, you see sir, there really was a problem recovering them, sir.”

“Why?”

“There...wasn’t much left to be recovered.”

“What do you mean?”

“It seems scavengers got to the body before we could, and then we...had to wait for them to finish.”

“What do you mean, you had to wait? Why didn’t you just shoo them away? And how could they have eaten that much of him so quickly?”

“Bears, sir.”

“Bears?”

“There were two bears eating the bodies when we got there.”

Kingsley’s eyes bulged in disbelief at the news and he choked on the sip of tea he had taken.

“BEARS? Where the bloody hell did bears come from?

“Ah, apparently they escaped from a Muggle circus the week prior. We thought it best to let them get on with it though, sir.”

Kingsley dropped his head into his hands, a vicious headache already blooming at the thought of the paperwork that this would require. Without lifting his head he addressed the aurors still standing in front of him. 

“Yes. Yes. I see your point. Fuck. Fitz and Simmons?”

“Yes, Minister?” they called out in unison.

Kingsley spoke in a weary voice. “Get out.”

And with that, Fitz and Simmons scurried out, both of them deeply relieved and eager to get back to their desks.


End file.
